Our house is on fire. Join the resistance: Do no harm/take no shit. My idiosyncratic and confluent bricolage of progressive politics, the collaborative commons, next generation cognitive neuroscience, American pragmatism, de/reconstruction, dynamic systems, embodied realism, postmetaphysics, psychodynamics, aesthetics. It ain't much but it's not nothing.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

"A friend in Mexico wrote me an email recently about McDonalds taking
advantage of the young by paying them minimum wage there. I asked, is
anyone else there willing to employ them for more or would they be
completely jobless and more broke without that job?"

I just saw 12 Years a Slave. Combined with the above statement I'm reminded of this post quoting David Loy:

"One might argue…that there are good corporations….The same argument
can be made for slavery, there were some good slave owners…. This does
not refute the fact that slavery was intolerable…. And it is just as
intolerable that today....transnational corporations are defective
economic institutions due to the basic way they are structured."

Also since I mentioned the phrase "becoming animal" from Faber, as well as the term interbeing, also recall this thread on that topic. A brief quote:

"This is a book about becoming a two-legged animal, entirely a part
of the animate world whose life swells within and unfolds all around
us. It seeks a new way of speaking, one that enacts our interbeing with
the earth rather than blinding us to it. A language that stirs a new
humility in relation to other earthborn beings, whether spiders or
obsidian outcrops or spruce limbs bend low by the clumped snow. A style
of speech that opens our senses to the sensuous in all its multiform
strangeness."

Human consciousness is not located in the head,
but is immanent in the living body and the interpersonal social world.
One’s consciousness of oneself as an embodied individual embedded in the
world emerges through empathic cognition of others. Consciousness is
not some peculiar qualitative aspect of private mental states, nor a
property of the brain inside the skull; it is a relational mode of being
of the whole person embedded in the natural environment and the human
social world.

The purpose of this report is to present this
perspective on human consciousness with an eye to its implications for
the emerging field of consciousness studies.

Guiding questions

Two main questions will guide this report:

How can recent research in
cognitive science help us to understand intersubjective consciousness
and empathy as part of our natural, evolutionary heritage?

How can phenomenological methods and contemplative practices deepen
and guide scientific research on intersubjective consciousness?

Balder provided the following Faber quote from Theopoetic Folds, which has been the subject of recent posts:

"Eco-consciousness and eco-conscience have an ethical and a spiritual dimension. Both can be characterized as 'always beginning in the middle.' Deleuze formulates this new categoreal imperative of eco-ethics as letting 'your loves be like the wasp and the orchid' and, without beginning and end, as being 'always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo' (Deleuze/Guattari, Rhizome 17). To begin in the middle always means to follow multiplicities in their deconstructive complexity within and without, to unsettle the boundariesand clear borders of forced identities, which are always imposed measures of the One with its power-installed abstractions of unification and division. To begin in the middle is an ethical category that activates us from the middle of the happening of multiplicities and asks us to always submerge into their middle, the many folds of connectivity within and beyond, which always form under the skin of powers of unification and division and only come to life within, across and beyond the boundaries of power. To become inter-being, we need to leave the high states of unity to become actors of the folds within unties between their moments of unifications, and between unities in the middle of their artificial isolation. To become 'in between' means to become intermezzo, that is, less than the abstract unifications that always feed the Anthropic Imperialism over nature, culture, and (human) Self. It means to become minor."

Which reminds me of this post on image schematic basic categories, following.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that
economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in
bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been
confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized
workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”

The series of posts in the last one reminds me of the objet a of Bryant's Borromean (integral) theory, another one with manifolds. From this post and following:

This interative process of differance is, as I noted, the heart of the Borromean diagram. It is in the interplay of objet a with the 3 methodologies that produces not only change but progress
through a spiral dynamical process. No, we never fully arrive at full
consciousness of this unmarked, withdrawn or virtual ‘space’ (khora),
for it too, being immanent and constructed, also develops and grows
given development in the actually manifest domains. In a sense one
expression of it is the cognitive unconscious of humans. We can never
know it fully and yet we do make inroads and open it just a bit more
with each advance. Hence I take Flanagan’s criticism of ‘consciousness’
(in the Thompson thread) as sometimes too focused on the marked space of
what we are aware, and how we often mistake this for the unmarked space
beyond its reach and thus confuse it with an ultimate and transcendent
realm.

Recall this
post where I referenced and linked to the book Theopoeitic
Folds, as well as commentary on the book in this
and this
post. From Faber's chapter he notes that what is necessary

“after the ecologicial death of God
[is] the mystical move of becoming-animal, becoming
multiplicity. This unio mystica […] [is] the consummation of
all unity into the realm of multiplicity. […] It is the khoric
realm of a paradox where we have to go through divergences,
bifurcations, and antinomies all at once. […] In this
mystical in/difference, everything is only in difference”
(227-28).

I'm making some associations from the
Faber quote that I don't think he makes, but not sure since I don't
have access to the whole chapter.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Ed Shultz reports. You will not hear any of these stories from the regressive echo chamber. In CA where they have an exchange things are looking quite good. This is why regressives that control States are refusing to implement the exchanges. These success stories will continue to escalate and overcome the far fewer sob stories. And yes, even the latter must be addressed and fixed, but with regressive media you don't get the whole story on that.

Like that in numerous proven cases, those who got the coverage termination letters could then go on exchanges and get a better deal. They leave out that part of the story. Or that insurance companies are choosing to give termination letters because they cannot compete with the exchanges, and then instead of informing former insured about the better exchange deals try to sell them a far more expensive policy. Again, this is not reported by the regressives. The regressives are going to lose this one big time once Obamacare gets rolling and they know it. And they'll do everything to prevent that, including lying and stealing, their usual tactics. But much like the last election they will again be exposed by the facts and they will lose again in 2014, big time.

It's amazing that this story is not getting prime time coverage. Recall that the recent financial crises was created by deliberately selling homes to people the bankers knew could not afford them. They then bundled these mortgages into securities that were fraudulently rated safe knowing full well the mortgages would default, and in fact bet that they would. They get rich and crash the economy.

Re-reading Kimmel's article I came upon the following text
about partner dance. As some of you know, I'm an avid partner dancer and
have expounded its philosophic virtues in various threads (here as one example). Kimmel supports my thesis:

"Cultural learning also impacts our ability to engage in interactions
and create intersubjectivity. Even mundane interactions typically
require us to recognize meaningful affordances, i.e. enabling states for
our next action perceived in real-time. In particular, we incorporate
the dynamic flow of body signals (gestures, gaze, gait, etc.) from
others into how we modulate our own actions. Just imagine a simple
nonverbal negotiation of two persons sliding past each other in a narrow
corridor. Sophisticated martial arts, dance, or bodywork skills that
require years of apprenticeship equally highlight enactive
intersubjectivity (Fuchs & de Jaegher, 2010). As Kimmel (2012)
argues, dancers of tango argentino can fluidly improvise together only
when they actively explore the partner at every moment and reciprocally
make their bodies amenable to being sensed (e.g. a good follower
strategically creates muscle chains allowing the leader to sense via her
shoulder blade what her leg is up to.) Communication depends on a
highly organized 'tango body' with ingrained postural, muscle related,
and attentional habits. While complex intersubjectivity skills
fundamentally build on immediate perception, they place the senses in a
continuum with functional concepts and regulative imagery. For example,
tango experts stick to basic enabling states by imagining a constant
'magnet' or 'torch seeking the partner’s sternum.' This helps maintain
rapport in any situation. More complex regulators keep track of
functionally important sensory coalescences, e.g. an 'energy ball'
representing the couple’s joint weight at a given moment. Here,
multi-channel sensory input gets blended 'into' the image, including
proprioception, the partner’s body, and space. The current position of
the ball summarizes system-level information, allows dynamic feedback to
be felt in the flesh, and thus provides a control structure for joint
action. Finally, the tango case sheds light on the hidden cognitive
substrate of dynamic decision making. Accomplished tango leaders fluidly
combine basic micro-elements without enacting scripted step sequences
and without much remeditation. They simply recognize a large repertory
of dynamic configurations that signal affordances to exploit 'on the
fly' on a given trajectory or to nudge the couple to when still a bit
away. Experts do this without enforcing anything, but by 'soft-assembling' the interaction within repertoire related as well as
sensory constraints (somatic feedback, music, available space)" (312).

Monday, November 25, 2013

Building on the last post, Robert Reich talks about the progressive values that the regressive game plan avoids at all costs. The most important of which is that Obamacare is about a moral imperative that says as a society the healthier and richer are willing to make small sacrifices to help the more needy among us. And make no mistake, the sacrifices the better off make are small. It exposes the me-first attitude inherent to a regressive value system as so much selfishness and greed. Reich notes progressives have to make this moral argument and admits that the word 'redistribution' isn't popular so instead suggests the frame of "everyone comes out ahead. And everyone does come out ahead in
the long term: Even the best-off will gain from a healthier and more
productive workforce, and will save money from preventive care that
reduces the number of destitute people using emergency rooms when they
become seriously ill."

George Lakoff comments on the NY Times expose of the latest Republican spin machine to defeat Obamacare. He lauds the NYT for bringing this to light but then criticized them for printing an example of such spin on their front page under the guise of a news story. Lakoff breaks down how the regressives frame their values and how media sources like the NYT don't recognize it and thus unknowingly reinforce those frames. It's nothing new from Lakoff but it too need reinforcement to counteract the regressive worldview, which prior to the Obama era was winning the framing wars. Note since the advent of Obama finally taking advice from Lakoff the progressives have been reversing this trend, at least since the 2010 election. That's why the regressives are doubling down with their spin machine and it is repeatedly and often reinforced in their echo chambers. Highly instructive article on how it works and how to counter it with progressive frames.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Chapter 1. Grassroots ScienceThe
increasing predominance of big science and large institutions. Public
alienation from science. The possibility of radical research on a budget
of less than $50. How amateurs could help revitalize science. The role
of computer networks. The continuing need for institutional science. A
complementary relationship between grassroots and institutional
research. Holistic medicine and low-cost medical research. Declining
science budgets. The popularity of dinosaurs. Psychedelic explorations
as an example of a grassroots research. Radical research by students.
The revitalizing of scientific education.

Here's a review of the book* by Bruce Gibb in the June 2010 issue of Integral Leadership Review from an SDi perspective. An excerpt:

"One
might conclude that Rifkin’s COG is at green because the values he
espouses and the demons he denounces are typically those of a person at
green. At the same time, however, since his articulation of these values
are in the service of global turquoise, one could argue that his COG is
at the turquoise level. I conclude the latter....

"His
enumeration of the life conditions that support turquoise empathetic
emergence will be a challenge to those who only think of turquoise
mainly in terms of spiritual consciousness."

Bruce Gibb, PhD, an
organizational psychologist, has been in private practice since
1973.... Since 2001 he has been studying and applying SDi concepts of
cultural evolution in his practice.

So first of all they ship their work overseas where they know they can get cheap labor with little to no safety standards, thereby increasing their profit ratio exponentially. And then when one of the factories they use to make clothing for them (Tazreen factory in Bangladesh) has a fire where more than 1200 workers died and 1800 were injured, they will not spend one penny to help those victims or their families. According to the linked article, while companies in other companies are sending financial aid "neither Walmart, Sears, Children’s Place nor any of the other American
companies that were selling goods produced at Tazreen or Rana Plaza have
agreed to contribute to the efforts. [...] There’s been a good response from some European brands, but so far none
of the U.S. retailers have agreed to pay a single penny for
compensation.” Not surprising, since they could give a shit about their American workers either, deliberately keeping them in wage slavery that requires federal assistance just to eat. Think about that next time you get the urge to shop at these sweat shops of literal death and depravity.

In this post
we wonder what's the alternative to capitalism? An emerging paradigm
shift as expressed in the following video: future economic success will
depend on thermo-dynamic efficiency (3:35); the next generation enacts
social entrepreneurship (6:00); literally power to the people
(7:30); the transition of the capitalist power companies (9:00);
distributed capitalism (10:00); new business models (11:00); how large
utilities make money in the transition (12:00); the changes of
consciousness (12:45); via larger capacity for empathy (14:00).

Friday, November 22, 2013

This previous post applies to kennilingus,* from Edwards' article in Integral Review 9:2, "Towards an integral meta-studies: describing and transcending boundaries in the development of big picture science."

"Wilber and many other metatheoreists rely on traditional scholarship
methods of essentially reading a broad, but ideosyncratic, selection of
writings and research and then making of it what they will according to
their own assumptions and predilections. This traditional approach is
not adequate if metathetical research is to be taken seriously as a form
of social science research. Metatheorising can and should be done as a
rigorous and methodical research activity and that AQAL metatheory needs
to participate in this process if it is to be truly grounded in the
scientific tradition. Until that time, AQAL metatheory will remain the
visionary creation of one thinker and corroborating evidence for its
framework of quadrants, levels, lines, types and states will remain
anecdotal at best. This is, perhaps, the most forceful reason for the
lack of acceptance for metatheorising, and particularly for AQAL
metatheory, across mainstream higher education institutions and their
constitutive disciplines" (183).

* Of course it applies to me as well, but I ain't trying for academic acceptance. I prefer the guerrilla agent provocateur approach on the online alleys and byways, where memes are culturally inculcated, not in ivory towers.

Bravo to the US Senate for voting to change the filibuster rules on the President's nominees. Basically the new rule allows an up-or-down vote on Obama's nominations, other than those to the Supreme Court. The old rule or requiring 60 votes just to get an up-or-down vote was ludicrous and the regressives took full advantage of it to block several nominees from ever even getting a vote on the floor. It's an obstructive tactic and it's now gone. I say alleluia to the end of a useless tool designed only to obstruct the working of our government over ideology. The people spoke in the last election and chose a majority of Democrats in the Senate so the rules now allow those Senators to vote on nominees. That's all. But that's a lot, since the regressives apparently don't like voting much of any kind.

In the following video Warren appears on Maddow's show. To sum up the difference in values she nails it: "The Republicans have made theirs clear [...] I got mine, the rest of you are on your own." For progressives: "We really do make these investments together [and] we build a strong future for all of us, not just for some of us" (7:35).

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

This Morton blog post led me to a review of his new book Hyperobjects. I provide a few excerpts consonant with some of my criticism of Morton in the OOO thread (like here and here).

“Morton adopts a Heideggerian notion of
world as sphere to which humans have privileged (if not exclusive)
access. ‘World’, from this perspective, is a reified object which floats
in a metaphysical ‘void’, immune to the extrusions of other objects and
to change. This is, from my viewpoint, an extremely limiting notion of
‘world’.

Many that rely on social security barely scrape by and need food stamps to supplement it as it is. And now mouthpieces of greedy misers want to cut both programs? What the hell is wrong with those people? See the following from Senator Warren and please consider supporting her petition.

"I spent most of my career studying the economic pressures on families –
people who worked hard, played by the rules, but still found themselves
hanging on by their fingernails to a place in the middle class.
A generation ago, middle class families could put away enough money
during their working years to make it through their later years with
dignity. But since that time, the retirement landscape has shifted
dramatically against our families.

A third of working families on the verge of retirement have no savings
of any kind. Another third have total savings less than their annual
income. Just as people need to rely more than ever on pensions,
employers have replaced guaranteed retirement income with 401(k) plans
that leave retirees at the mercy of the market. And 44 million workers
don't even have access to that sort of plan.

Add
all of this up, and we're left with a retirement crisis – a crisis that
is as real and as frightening as any policy problem facing the United
States today.

The latest news is that Walmart is now asking their own employees to feed their other employees, those making such poverty wages they cannot even afford to buy a decent Thanksgiving meal. This has got to stop. See the following from Democracy for America and sign the petition to increase the minimum wage so we can stop having companies like Walmart get government subsidies in the way of food stamps etc. to supplement their slave wages.

It has actually come to
this: on Monday, news broke that a Walmart in Ohio has set up a donation
box asking employees to donate desperately needed food -- to struggling, hungry Walmart employees.

That's right. Walmart raked in $15.7 billion in profits last year
alone, but apparently they don't feel any need to share that wealth with
their millions of workers. Instead, they stick them with poverty wages,
then send them off to ask government, food banks, or even each other
for help.

If it wasn't clear before, it should be clear now --
Walmart is never going to do right by its employees. It is up to us to
make them pay a fair wage.

Senate
Democrats just introduced a bill that would increase the minimum wage.
President Obama publicly supports it, and it could pass the Senate in a
couple of weeks, bringing us that much closer to having fairer wages for
all -- but it will only happen if Republicans listen to the American
people and get out of the way.

Monday, November 18, 2013

She's at it again, speaking for those in need at a time when even Democrats and the President are conceding to social security cuts. No she says, raise them by giving actual cost of living adjustments instead of chained adjustments, which in effect cut benefits. It is so refreshing to hear this kind of defense of the American people as a whole, especially in this case the elderly, who everyone else (except progressives) want to screw so that the rich can keep their tax-exempt status. Bravo.

The last post relates to this post
about how sometimes it seems Buddhist equanimity and nonattachment
translates as indifference. In Faber though the slash indicates the
distinction from apathy and indicates how difference itself is divine.
This essential relationality of difference could correlate with Buddhist
dependent origination and thus form a bridge with Buddhist compassion,
which seems to arise due to this same difference in each of us. Except
that it seems in Buddhism this difference is interpreted as suffering
due to a separate self-sense, whereas with Faber et al. it is cause for
rejoicing in divinity?

“When he collates differance with
divinity […] this difference signifies a self-deconstructing otherness.
Yet is does not destroy rationality, or even the categorial scheme. […]
Faber in this way continues the Whiteheadian struggle to capture in
language a difference between God and the world, or one and the other,
without reinscribing the settled boundary between them—or erasing their
difference. This differential nondualism [...] translates for him into
'God's in/difference.' One must not lose that inaudible slash, else
'in/difference' will be confused with the chilling apatheia.[…]
Thus 'this negative assertion paradoxically requires that because God
is indeed nothing beyond all differences, God thus appears only in
differences.' […] Faber's divine in/difference morphs into difference
itself, the difference so radical as to be comprised by the 'essential
relationality' of all differences” (190).

This new book may be of interest, Theopoetic Folds: Philosophizing Multifariousness. It includes chapters by Caputo, Keller, Faber and Thatamanil. Here is a free Google book preview. Here's a chapter from the book, "Towards the Heraldic." An excerpt of the abstract:

"The first task of this chapter is to detail the qualities of a
theological position identified as 'monorthodox,' articulating how it
forms a worldview that is impositionally singular, rigid, and
totalizing. This position is then critiqued and an alternative approach
is developed as a corrective for it by means of an engagement with John
Howard Yoder’s work in missiology and articulations of theopoetics and
religious imagination as voiced by Stanley Hopper and Amos Wilder. This
corrective position is termed a 'Heraldic' theology, and is marked by
gestures of invitation, space-making, and manifoldedness, without an
abandonment of truth claims. Arguments from this position recognize that
the expression of a transformational experience of the Divine will be
necessarily multiplicitous and communally developed: they challenge
proponents of a monorthodox worldview that demand acquiescence, without,
in turn, imposing a perspective others must maintain."

Sunday, November 17, 2013

It seems that the Buddhist notion of not 'reacting,' of observing
initial emotional responses like anger or fear or hate is to let the
charge pass so that one can response with equanimity and 'skillful
means.' But this has been rationalized into accepting a host of
degenerate and unjust behavior, thereby not doing anything constructive
about it. Yes, traditionally Buddhism has compassion for those who have
been treated unjustly, but also those who have committed unjust actions.
For that latter the calming of the so-called negative emotions to
elicit love and compassion seems to have led to not taking appropriate
actions with criminal perpetrators. It's almost a New Age sort of belief
that if we treat such criminals with love and compassion this will
transform them.

Over at IPS forum we've been discussing Evolving Dharmaby Jay Michaelson. e chimed in with his usual kennilingus dogma on how Michaelson is 'green' because "he criticized Asian dharmic culture as being too stratified. He criticized capitalism and folks who marginalized minorities." Hologram holomovement replied:"I certainly have my limits with overly politically correct greens, but
their ability to be critical of capitalism for destroying human
communities and the environment and being more tolerant of alternatives
that are more egalitarian and non-judgemental is something that is
desperately needed at this point in history. so instead of labeling
greens as mean-green nihilists as wilber and the integral orthodoxy do,
we should encourage and promote the best of each level while maintaining
a critical eye toward the pathological at each level. wilber is
clearly in a performative contradiction when he proclaims the transcend
and include imperative on the one hand and then dismisses the greens by
excluding the entire archetypal lexicon of social justice from his
system in favor of entrepreneurial commercialized spirituality, the
postmodern form of religion in late capitalism."

Time and again the Senate regressives have use the filibuster to implement their business-first agenda. One particular and glaring example is by preventing an up-or-down vote of Obama's DC circuit court judge nominees. Warren articulately lays out why they are doing this, despite the fact that these nominees would be confirmed by majority vote: Regressives want this circuit in their pocket to overturn regulations on the banks and Wall Street. It is that plain and blatant, and it is despicable.

For the first time since World War II, wages have been declining while
the gulf between the middle class and the ultra-wealthy continues to
grow. Moms and dads are working harder, but falling farther behind.

As we move out of this recession and into better times, we must make
the important choices necessary to expand opportunity and grow the ranks
of a diverse middle class. Right now the U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.

But it's on the side of those who claim there is voter fraud so they must change the voting laws to prevent it. As usual the regressives project what they do onto others, since they are corrupt at worst and just plain unaware of their projections at best. There have been reports that their new voter ID law prevented several thousand Democrat voters from participating in their Constitutional right in the recent election. Given that the polls indicated the Democrat for Governor was up about 10 points before the race, and that he won by only 3 points, seems indicative. But the Attorney General race is yet to be called, given the vote count was very close. So now, in the process of recounting the votes, the sitting Republican Attorney General, who lost the Governor's race, has decided to change the recount rules during a recount! This is unprecedented and corrupt, since the remaining provisional ballots will likely lean heavily in favor of the Democrat. See Rachel Maddow's report below. That this is not making national news is astounding.

"When you promise the American people something won't happen when you change the law, and then you change the law and it does happen, you have to eat a little shit for it. Oh I'm not talking about him [Obama and healthcare], I'm talking about him [Chief Justice of the Supreme Court]."

Maher then goes on to show how the Supreme Court promised that nothing bad would happen from either Citizen's United or gutting the Voting Rights Act, when in fact disaster struck immediately after.

See this article on Senator Bernie Sanders' progressive budget plan. A summary from the article:

Stop corporations from using offshore tax havens to avoid U.S. taxes.Each and every year, the United States loses an
estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the
wealthy and large corporations. The situation has become so absurd that
one five-story office building in the Cayman Islands is now the “home”
to more than 18,000 corporations.

Establish a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculators.
Both the economic crisis and the deficit crisis are a direct result of
the greed and recklessness on Wall Street. Creating a speculation fee of
just 0.03 percent on the sale of credit default swaps, derivatives,
options, futures, and large amounts of stock would reduce gambling on
Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the
job-creating productive economy, and reduce the deficit by $352 billion
over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

This is the heading of an IPS thread from 2010. I've recently added a few posts to pick up the topic again, starting here and copied below. Check out the thread periodically for more updates.

I'm returning to this thread since it is a good question, one that
defines a part of name of the forum. I'm quoting from Bryant's Democracy of Objects below, as it is clarifying in this regard:

"Bhaskar's defense of ontological realism begins with a very simple
transcendental question: '...what must the world be like for science to
be possible?' In asking what the world must be like for science to be
possible, Bhaskar is asking a transcendental question and deploying a
transcendental mode of argumentation. The question here is not, 'how do
we have access to the world?' or, 'how do we know the world?' but rather
what must be presupposed about the nature of the world in order for our
scientific practices to be possible. As Deleuze reminds us, the
transcendental is not to be confused with the transcendent. The
transcendent refers to that which is above or beyond something else. For
example, God, if it exists, is perhaps transcendent to the world. The
transcendental, by contrast, refers to that which is a condition for
some other practice, form of cognition, or activity.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

"In his mature work, Deleuze argues for an 'impersonal and
pre-individual' transcendental field in which the subject [...] is
itself the result or product of differential passive syntheses.
[...] The passive syntheses responsible for subject formation must be
qualified as 'differential,' for three reasons. Each passive synthesis
is serial, never singular (there is never one synthesis by itself, but
always a series of 'contractions,' that is to say, experience is ongoing
and so our habits require constant 'updating'); each series is related
to other series in the same body (at the most basic level, for instance,
the series of taste contractions is related to those of smell, sight,
touch, hearing and proprioception); and each body is related to other
bodies, which are themselves similarly differential (the series of
syntheses of bodies can resonate or clash). Together the passive
syntheses at all these levels form a differential field within which
subject formation takes place as an integration or resolution of that
field; in other words, subjects are roughly speaking the patterns of
these multiple and serial syntheses which fold in on themselves
producing a site of self-awareness."

"The term 'general economy' is perhaps not the best one to use. An
'open,' 'folded' or 'excessive' economy may be [better] terms. [...] In
this regard, the general economy acknowledges the 'foldedness' of the
system in its relationship to the outside" (74-5).

The footnote to the above on 75-6 sounds a lot like Bryant, where a
system's boundaries are porous, both open and closed. This makes a clear
distinction between in/out impossible and hence the fold. Nonetheless,
the boundary exists and thereby differentiates between internal and
external relations, between system and environment. It's like Morton's
Rift earlier in the thread.

Peers is a grassroots
organization that supports the sharing economy movement. We believe that
by sharing what we already have — like cars, homes, skills and time —
everyone benefits in the process. The sharing economy is helping us pay the bills, work flexible hours,
meet new people or spend more time with our families. We think it’s how
the 21st century economy should work, so we’re coming together to grow,
mainstream and protect the sharing economy.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

No they do not. Chis Mooney discusses a study that answers the question definitively. Which of course is supported by other studies like this one. So cognitive dissonance is not the same for both political leanings, as the very apt terms progressive and regressive indicate. In this article Mooney shows that the more educated the regressive, the stronger the avoidance of cognitive dissonance! The opposite is the case for progressives.

The video below discussed critical thinking. Recall that the State of Texas actually came out against this heinous crime against God and Country, for it might lead to questioning unquestioning acceptance of Authority. Never mind that critical thinking leads to self reliance, a supposed conservative value constantly harped on. Seeing that contradiction itself requires critical thinking, and God forbid! Literally.

So asks David Loy here. Therein he writes a letter to a board member of Goldman Sachs, one who promotes meditation for businesses. Following are comments from Loy's preface. See the link for the lengthy letter he wrote, with no response.

"The basic problem, it seems to me, is that one can be well-intentioned
and yet play an objectionable role in an economic system that has become
unjust and unsustainable – in fact, a challenge to the well-being of
all life on this planet. Mr. George is an important figure in the 'mindfulness in business' movement. [...]
His position therefore highlights some concerns I have about the role of
the 'mindfulness movement,' and also has broad implications for
socially engaged Buddhism generally. I’ve written elsewhere about the
fact that today the traditional 'three poisons' of greed, aggression,
and delusion have become institutionalized as our economic system,
militarism, and the media. If so, what does that imply for our engaged
Buddhist practice?"

"'Lord help our fucking scam . . . this has to be the stupidest place I
have worked at,' writes one Standard & Poor's executive. 'As you
know, I had difficulties explaining HOW we got to those numbers since
there is no science behind it,' confesses a high-ranking S&P
analyst. 'If we are just going to make it up in order to rate deals,
then quants [quantitative analysts] are of precious little value,'
complains another senior S&P man. 'Let's hope we are all wealthy and
retired by the time this house of card[s] falters,' ruminates one more."

I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process. In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, publicly traded corporations can spend investor's money on political activity in secret. I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a
rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all
their political spending. Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how
much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being
promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC's
web site.

“Wilber’s paradigm is insufficiently spiced, as it were, with the
essential ingredients of complex thinking. His understanding of
holarchical integration (the higher includes the lower) gives expression
to only half of the holographic principle (which implies that the lower
also includes the higher). […] Vision-logic, as Wilber conceives of it,
is more or less identical with the Hegelian dialectic and its process
of 'sublation' (aufheben). Morin [...] faults Hegel for considering
contradiction a transitory 'moment' of the Aufhebung, a moment which is
ultimately annulled in the 'synthesis' of the third term (see Morin
1982, 289). Wilber’s vision-logic is subject to the same strictures,
particularly insofar as it subserves the idealist metaphysics associated
with the root metaphor of the Great Chain of Being.”

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Balder linked to a David Michael Kleinberg-Levin video in this post with some commentary following. His comments inspired me to the following response.

What this brought up for me is partner dance. Talk about the flesh as
crucible for creative transformation via deep listening/feeling with
another. And through this partnership in art communicating that to an
audience, all without words, just bodies moving to the music, connecting
us on a deep felt level from our ancient heritage. That is what the
word disclosure meant for me when reading the above. How we disclose our
very personal selves through this art, lay bare our deepest feelings,
hopes and fears through our movement, and how this disclosure or
unveiling resonates to the audience and they feel it too. Philosophy in
the flesh indeed.

"It's ok if you don't want to feed the hungry, or heal the sick, or house the homeless. Just don't say you're doing it for their own good."

He notes the rationalizations used for this, like creating a culture of dependency, are cruel and inhumane. It's a selfish philosophy that has little to do with the actual teaching of Jesus. This is particularly poignant given the recent cut in food stamps with some Congressional bozo quoting the bible that if you don't work you don't eat. Maher concludes with a series of one-liners highlighting their hypocrisy:

In keeping with recent posts on transformality also see this article by Sean Kelly, "From the complexity of consciousness to the consciousness of complexity." The abstract:

"This paper explores the fruitfulness of Edgar Morin’s articulation
of the principles of complex thinking for contemporary reflection on the
nature of consciousness. Following some preliminary remarks on
Teilhard de Chardin’s understanding of the connection between complexity
and consciousness, I turn to Ken Wilber’s 'all quadrant, all level'
assessment of the field of consciousness studies. While acknowledgingthe
value of Wilber’s assessment, I argue that his hermeneutic principles
of 'holarchical integration' (which he adapts from Koestler’s notion of
the 'holon') and 'simultracking' fall short in accounting for the complex
character of the relation between 'levels’ (e.g., brain and mind) and
'quadrants' (e.g., individual and culture). Such an accounting is
possible, however, when informed by the notions of recursivity,dialogic,
and holography--Morin’s three principles of complex thinking. I
conclude with the suggestion that hese principles can be taken as
expressions, in the cognitive mode, of the next main phase in the
evolution of consciousness following the full deployment of formal
operational thinking (Piaget), a phase variously described as
post-formal, 'integral consciousness' (Gebser), and 'vision logic'
(Wilber)."

Friday, November 8, 2013

I likely posted some if not all of the following before, but Balder reminded me of this Morin article, which fits with recent posts on the transformal. So I'll copy-and-paste on it from this IPS post and following:

Morin: "From the concept of system to the paradigm of complexity." Sound familiar?

"As the concept of system now stands, though it is embedded in a
general theory ('general system theory'), it does not constitute a
paradigmatic principle; rather, the principle invoked is that of holism,
which seeks explanation at the level of the totality, in opposition to
the reductionist paradigm that seeks explanation at the level of
elementary components. As I shall demonstrate, however, this 'holism'
arises from the same simplifying principle as the reductionism to which
it is opposed (that is, a simplification of, and reduction to, the
whole)" (1).

Neelesh started an IPS thread on an article on integral sports from the ITC '13 conference. Neelish's overall take was that perhaps competition is from a lower level of development and its time has passed, causing more harm than good. I disagree and my response from the thread follows:

A few personal comments, since I've yet to read this article. Competition per se is not at
any level, nor did it originate from any level. It's one of those
fields upon which we can project whatever values we have. I've been
involved in sports my entire life, from basketball, football, baseball,
martial arts and now dance sport (and art). From the earliest age I was
inculcated with 'sportmanship,' that one treat their opponents with
respect and honor, for competing with them instills a drive to exceed
one's own limitations and pushes one to the next level of expertise. We
are grateful to our opponents for this opportunity and after each game
it is traditional to shake hands to express this gratitude, or pat them
on the butt, etc. "Good game" and so on.

Tim Morton's new book Hyperobjects is out. I
am more than a bit disappointed that he's chosen to not publish open
source again. Seems his popularity has induced a regression back to the
capitalist meme. I suppose it's not that surprising since as I've
criticized his notion of hyperobjects earlier in the thread* as
consistent with the sort of dualistic metaphysics inherent to American
capitalism and formal operations, all that talk of dialetheia
notwithstanding.**

* Like here as but one example.
** Also see this post where I accuse Priest with all his fancy contradictory math-logic of the same thing.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Stand with common sense, not anti-gay extremists -- support the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). It’s way past time for Congress to enact basic workplace protections
that shield LGBT Americans from employment discrimination. It’s illegal
to fire someone because of race, religion, national origin, disability,
age or gender but currently, employment discrimination based on sexual
orientation or gender identity is not prohibited by federal law. Although much progress has been made, LGBT Americans remain widely
discriminated against. 29 states have no laws prohibiting employment
discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 33 states have none that
do so based on gender identity. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is a very basic,
commonsense measure that would protect LGBT Americans against the very
real discrimination many of them face in the workplace -- one that the
public overwhelmingly supports. Please support ENDA -- H.R. 1755/S. 815 -- and do everything in your power to move it to final passage this year.

More support for recent posts on the fold added to this IPS thread. Even though I mentioned Weiss in this post I didn't provide the material upon which I based my analysis. Hence it follows from this post.
My only reservation is that the structures are "a latent possibility or
inherent disposition within Origin," a decidedly metaphysical
proposition of the kind not conducive to postmetaphysics. I.e. a
transcendent v. transcendental metaphysics.

"To read Gebser in a Hegelian manner, as Ken Wilber does with his
popular slogan 'transcend and include,' is, in a sense, to grasp the
letter of Gebser while missing the living spirit of his work. Gebser
himself discussed the limits of the famous Hegelian dialectic. He said
that because mental thought tends to be dichotomizing, it necessitates
the generation of a third term to move toward reconciliation. But even
this third term (the Hegelian 'synthesis') is in turn split again as the
overall process marches onward. Gebser saw this dialectic as an
unsatisfying expression of the deficient phase of the mental structure
of consciousness (which will be described below). Overall, Weiss wanted
to be clear that Gebser's thought should not be mistaken for a new
version of Hegelianism, nor should it be reduced to it, and in his own
life Gebser tried to distance himself from Hegel's work.

Further information on recent posts regarding the transformal fold. From Goddard, chapter 16:

"Evolution on the Outward arc is an assertive and agentic process of building,
building an ever more complex and stratified self/world structure
through the first six stage-structures. But beyond this, transcendence
does not consist in building further and ever greater superstructures on
the basis of the ordinary self/world structure; it is not an accessing
of new and hierarchically ordered mental-social structures beyond those
of the Outward arc. Rather, as we move into more subtle and rarefied
levels of consciousness, we are called to deconstruct and transform,
within the higher space of transpersonal awareness, the self/world
structures of the Outward arc. Transcendence is an accessing of higher
ontological domains through a radical re-organization, a deep
transformation involving a total deconstruction of self and its experienced world(s) thereby revealing higher and more subtle levels of consciousness.